Troubleshooters: Tia and Twily

Chapters

Science Fiction
Bold
Shift
Triple
Wedding
Competition
Sunrise
Eclipse

Science Fiction

“And… here we are,” Twilight spoke, wings flapping slowly to settle down softly on the snow-covered grass. Once she touched down, her horn lit and a heating spell spread through the clearing, melting the snow and evaporating the water within.

Twilight led Celestia to their favorite picnic place, one of the smaller hills that made up Mount Canterhorn. It was secluded, it was private from all but spying pegasi and griffons, and it was perfect for an outside lunch or dinner date.

Looking to the sky, Twilight also knew that it offered a great view of ships ascending to and descending from orbit.

“Twi?” Celestia’s voice drifted to her ears over the silence.

“Hm?” she turned to see Celestia had laid out the food for their date.

“Dinner’s ready.” Celestia’s right wing motioned to the food laid out.

‘She really pulled out the big guns…’ Twilight thought as she looked over the homemade meal. Celestia really had gone all out. Homemade salad from her garden, including her sunflowers and daisies, rolls, even a grilled pineapple’s aroma slid into her nose.

Licking her lips, Twilight moved over to Celestia’s side and eyed the food hungrily. “It all looks so good. I can’t decide!”

Celestia smiled knowingly, Twilight’s reaction had been just as she knew it would. Her horn lit and a plate floated up to Twilight’s muzzle, offering itself to her.

Taking the plate in her own magic, the purple mare grabbed a little bit of everything, eager to chow down.

Celestia snagged her own plate, she copied Twilight, taking a little of everything. Both ponies tucked in eagerly.

The meal was utterly destroyed. Only crumbs had survived the reckoning and would live to tell of the destruction from the two alicorns.

Twilight lay on her side tucked against Celestia. The smaller mare had grown, now only smaller than two ponies, the mare beside her and Luna. Cadance rivalled her height, as they were so similar in age, at least when one counts away years in decades.

Celestia had her wing around Twilight as they both gazed into the night sky. Twilight snuggled deeper into the white mare’s embrace. “Tia?”

Celestia didn’t answer her, only tightening her wing in response.

“I’ve got a surprise for you.” One of Twilight’s forehooves poked out and pointed skyward, toward Canterlot’s spaceport.

Almost as if on cue, a massive, grey warship slowly climbed into view. It clearly wasn’t quite finished, evidenced by the environmental shielding covering some sections still missing plating or ports that hadn’t quite been filled yet.

Celestia hadn’t thought it was the surprise until the second half of the ship came into view. The words REN Celestia were engraved into its sides. A purple glow surrounded the ship for a few seconds before becoming translucent.

It was almost cylindrical, it had three wings making up the bulk of its mass. It almost resembled a chicken’s egg, or a massive industrial drill, if it was tipped onto its side, split into three sections and cradled a massive orb. Each of the three sections had a small pair of wings. Each of its three main wings had two thrusters on one side, six in all. There appeared to be a third thruster on the inside of each main wing, almost as if it was to be used if the wing was broken off from the ship itself.

‘Oh, it looks like they got the shield generators installed and online,’ Twilight thought.

“Twilight? What is this?” she looked to the mare under her wing to find a bright smile in return.

“This, Tia is my surprise.” Twilight’s smile shrunk to a content grin as her hoof followed the ship.

“A ship?”

“Yep.”

Two ponies continued to stare up at the massive ship in the sky, only one awestruck at its sleek hull.

“Twilight… is this really necessary?” Celestia asked, a wing wrapped around the smaller mare.

She felt Twilight’s nod as a reply more than anything after a few seconds. “Mhmm. I meticulously designed it. Three redundant Luna-class thrusters on each side, there’s a pair of linked You-class harmonic shield resonators each in the fore and aft for defense, and six Me-class blaster cannons as offense.”

Celestia blinked once. “I understood all that when I saw the approved plans, but why did you name it after me?”

They stared again at the words REN Celestia embossed on the ship’s side, against it’s still slate-gray hull. Twilight spoke up quietly, almost a whisper. “Oh. It’s not finished yet. It’s commissioned to match your colors once it’s done!”

Celestia sighed before reaching down and nuzzling the smaller mare cocooned in her wing. “That doesn’t answer my question, Twilight.” She kissed her prey below her horn before pulling back slightly.

Twilight jumped only very slightly as Celestia’s muzzle touched her forehead. “Well… the real reason is complicated.” Her ears pinned back, making her look every bit the prey she’d become.

Celestia laughed softly. “We have been dating a while, haven’t we? I think that anything you may have told me before then would make this look easy, wouldn’t it?”

Twilight pushed her muzzle into Celestia’s side and spoke softly, and the only way Celestia knew her marefriend had spoken was because she felt them.

Teasingly, she tightened her wing around Twilight as she spoke, “What was that, love? You’ll have to speak up.”

Twilight’s wings tried to flare, failing miserably in their confined space. After a few seconds she spoke up, “Lemme out, please.”

“Only if you promise to tell me. It doesn’t have to be today, or tomorrow, but eventually.” Celestia’s wing lifted away at Twilight’s nod, freeing the smaller mare.

The ship’s engines fired up, bringing a small whine along on the wind. Twilight stepped away a few feet as Celestia folded her wing back at her side. “It… it’s a present. For you.” Celestia’s shocked look only lasted a fraction of a second. “I know how much you hate feeling powerless in the universe, especially since we started exploring it and leaving the nest, as you once put it. The revolution to change Equestria into a republic certainly didn’t help that any.” Both ponies’ heads bowed for a few seconds.

“Indeed, but it certainly did help our little ponies learn for themselves, after all.”

Twilight nodded once. “Yeah.”

Celestia poked Twilight with a free hoof. “Enough reminiscing on the past, I would say. You were saying?”

Twilight pointed to a dome in the middle of the ship. “What I didn’t put in the blueprints, was a special chamber. Should you need to be anywhere in the universe, that chamber lets you channel your entire mana pool into the Celestia’s oversized power banks.”

The whining intensified and the Celestia sailed across the sky and away from the planet. Both alicorns’ thoughts were interrupted as it seemed to effortlessly glide away.

“My entire pool, Twilight?” Twilight nodded once. “Are you sure?” Another nod. “In all my years, I’ve ever used it entirely twice. I assure you, unless Luna has shown you a memory of hers, you haven’t seen my entire reserve of magic.”

Twilight looked up at where the Celestia had flown off. “It took me several favors for Luna, several months of calculations, and an entire farm field’s worth of coffee, but I have seen both times. I assure you, Tia, it will hold your entire reserve and use it to whatever ends you wish. If I may, can I please continue my previous explanation?”

Celestia nodded once. Twilight continued her explanation, “You or by proxy, any alicorn, can literally supercharge that ship. The banks only flow one way into the ship, so you cannot overcharge the banks, unless you or another alicorn do it on purpose. The chamber also doubles as a focus for teleportation.”

“Teleportation?” Twilight looked at her marefriend, for one of the first times truly seeing confusion on her face.

“Yes, teleportation. While any alicorn can use it, it’s tuned specifically to you. That means with you and the ship working together, you both can literally be anywhere at any time. You won’t feel helpless anymore, Celestia.”

Twilight suddenly found her world had turned a pleasant shade of alabaster as Celestia knocked her on her back as Tia attempted to hug the life-force out of her. “I… Thank you, Twilight. If this ship performs as it says you will, I will be able to help my ponies once again, even if I am no longer their leader. If there’s anything you wish of me, I would gladly give it to you.”

Twilight squeaked once as Celestia released her. “There is one thing.”

Celestia’s mask slipped back on. “Name it.”

Twilight turned pleading eyes on her lover. “Take me with you. I’m tired of feeling helpless myself.”

Celestia smiled and laughed loudly, full heaving laughs. “That’s it? Consider it done, Captain Twilight Sparkle.” She drew the smaller mare into another bonecrushing hug, before kissing her on the lips.

A shrill scream heralded the Celestia’s return to Equestria. Celestia looked up at the ship again and thought, ‘You know, I think I like it with my name on it now.’

Twilight wrapped her wings around Celestia, returning the gesture from before. A contented sigh escaped the white mare as she relaxed in Twilight’s embrace, snuggling in deeper.

As the Celestia slid back into the spaceport, both ponies let sleep claim them.

Author's Note

Written August 18th, 2014.

This was a big one, it set in motion this series of prompts. Now updated with a new front-half!

Bold

Captain Twilight Sparkle stood in the bridge of her ship, the REN Celestia. Technically, their ship. She shared it with her marefriend, Celestia, who was residing in the newly-dubbed ‘Alicorn Supercharger’ waiting to give it a jumpstart.

The helmsmare sat at her console, looking over her panels. Twilight sat at her own console and looked it over. A gentle humming floated through the room as she watched some of the readouts. Seeing the one she’d waited for start rising she stated, “Reactors powering up. Helm, you should be getting power to the engines now.”

“Confirmed, Captain. I’ve got power.” The pegasus helmsmare called out, strapped into her piloting harness.

“Shield emitter arrays charging.” Her left ear flicked to focus on a stallion at another console as he called out.

“Thaumatronic communications online and fully functional.” A minotaur engineer called out, catching her other ear.

“Great!” Twilight pressed a button on her console before speaking. “Hey Celly, how’s the chamber look?”

“Teleportation matrices and Supercharger capacitor banks ready but uncharged.” Celestia’s voice rang through the bridge.

She quickly replied, “Excellent. Check your readout and charge the banks to around thirty percent, please. We’re launching shortly and I want to test out the teleport matrices before we need them.”

Celestia’s voice called back, “Roger that. Celestia out.”

Glancing about the room, the ponies in front of her all confirmed their consoles checked out ready. She pressed another button on her console, addressing the entire ship. “All hooves, prepare for launch! Repeat, prepare for launch!”

The gentle hum sharply grew into a whine as the reactors worked their way to capacity.

Twilight opened a comm channel with the dockmaster’s tower. “Canterlot Tower, this is Captain Twilight Sparkle of the REN Celestia, requesting permission to undock for a test of our teleporter.”

“REN Celestia, this is Canterlot Tower, you are cleared to undock. Have a pleasant trip.”

Twilight chuckled. “We’ll try to, Tower, REN Celestia out.”

“Helm, you copy that?”

“Affirmative, Captain. How fast do you want to leave?”

“Forty percent power to the engines, Helm. Let’s give Canterlot a good show as we leave.” The ship shook as the docking clamps holding it in place released, letting the Celestia’s engines hold its own weight in the air.

“Roger that.” The pegasus mare spread her wings pushed a lever forward with each wingtip. She leaned back slightly in her harness and the ship did the same as it accelerated slowly, merging into the orbital traffic lanes.

Celestia’s voice calmly called out, “Capacitors charged to thirty percent, Captain. Might I be so bold as to ask for a rousing speech before we break orbit?”

Twilight smiled as she contacted her marefriend. “You always were much better at them than I ever was, I was hoping you’d give one.” This brought a chuckle from the rest of the crew on the bridge.

“I suppose I can give a speech, if you guys really want one.” The chorus of cheers from around her gave her her answer.”

Helm, feeling sneaky, broke free from the traffic lanes and made her way around to Canterlot proper. She had the Celestia circle Canterlot’s mountain as it gained momentum and ascended.

She contacted the entire ship again. “Normally, this would be where I would ask the alicorn residing in our big battery, Celestia - who’s much better at this - to give a speech. She’s flipped the tables and asked me to give one instead, so I’ll do my best.”

Her tone was somber. “We’re not the first ship to go into space. Not by a longshot. By Tartarus, we’re not even in the first one-thousand.”

From the somber ashes, her voice rose. “But what we are is unique. This is the only ship that can literally teleport to wherever it’s needed, strike a sore spot, and retreat to safety again. The Celestia is not, and will never be, a useless ship. If there’s anything that needs to be done, we can do it!”

She asked her crew, bordering on yelling. “Who are we?”

The crew in the bridge responded. “Troubleshooters!”

She yelled back over the intercom. “What was that? I couldn’t hear you!”

Helm took the Celestia to safely pass by Cloudsdale, still accelerating.

The ship shook slightly as the entire crew shouted their answer back, “Troubleshooters!”

Pumped up, she continued. “That’s better! And now, what do we do?”

“Fix problems!” shouted back at her.

Twilight was really in the spirit now. “Who’s gonna stop us?”

“Nopony alive!”

Helm could see Equus’ curvature now, they were so high up. She pushed the engines to full power.

“Where are we going to go?”

“Where can’t we go?”

Celestia’s voice rang through the ship, clearly laughing. “Alright, Captain, I think you’ve motivated them. We don’t want them to yell the ship apart, do we?”

Twilight laughed. “Now, are all of you ready!”

The entire ship screamed at her as it flew out past Luna’s moon.

“Alright! Celestia, prepare to teleport two hundred kilometers straight ahead!”

“Affirmative.” Ten seconds passed before Celestia spoke again. “Ready to teleport, Captain.”

“All hooves brace for teleport.” Everypony on the bridge braced themselves on a part of the Celestia.

Twilight keyed the intercom again. “Hit it.”

The entire ship flashed gold for a split second before lurching slightly to the side as it re-entered reality.

Twilight called out. “Status report, everything green?”

Helm replied first, “Engines idling.”

The call came in from engineering. “Reactors down ten percent power, but still within projected margins and recovering quickly.”

“Comms still green across the board.”

“Shields down, should be back up in fifteen seconds.”

Celestia spoke, “A little woozy from using that much power, but I’m still good down here!” Before her voice cut out, she started laughing heartily. The laugh spread through the crew, considering the teleport a success.

“Crew, we’ve had our first successful teleport!” She announced. ‘Just think, when we get proficient enough, we can do that like it was second nature!’

Helm called out, “Captain, you may find this interesting. Take a look out the window and try to find the moon. Or Equus.”

Twilight did just that, finding a speck resembling a planet in the distance. “Helm, where are we?” She called out.

“My best guess, instead of teleporting us several hundred kilometers, we were teleported several million kilometers.” Twilight returned to her console, checking the reserve banks and verifying they were untouched.

She called up Celestia. “Celestia, how much of your reserve do you have left?”

“Most of it, why?”

“We’ve got a little more testing and tweaking to do with the teleport matrices. It seems they amplify the distance far more than we realized.”

“How so?”

“We’re nowhere near Equus anymore. Helm says we’ve gone about ten thousand times further than we were supposed to go.”

“Ah. I’m guessing you want to go back?”

Twilight tried to keep the stress from her voice. “Yeah, that would be nice. Teleport when you’re ready.”

“Will do, Celestia out.”

She keyed the intercom for the entire ship. “All hooves, brace for teleport. The teleport was a more than a little success. We’re headed home.”

The ship flashed gold, and reappeared near Luna’s moon.

“Helm, bring us home.”

“Roger that, Captain.”

“When we dock, I’ll have to go over the matrices again,” Twilight wondered aloud.

The minotaur engineer spoke up. “Captain, permission to speak freely?”

She looked over to him. “Granted, Star Torus. You should know by now that you don’t need my permission.”

“Then with all due respect, ma’am, don’t touch them,” Torus replied.

“Why is that?” She cocked her head to the side slightly.

He fought off a grin at how adorable she looked, even if she was more than a thousand years his senior. “Ma’am, this is outer space. We won’t need to make short-ranged jumps to be anywhere in the universe. We need the efficiency to be anywhere.”

She nodded in satisfaction. “Fair enough, Torus. We’ll have to have more practice runs like this for Celestia and the teleporter to nail down their distances, though.”

Helm spoke up, cutting off Torus’ reply. “If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. We need the best, and shortening our maximum range won’t do us any good.”

“Agreed.” Torus chimed in.

“If that’s what you really want, then I’ll leave them alone.”

Helm looked to Torus, nodding sharply. “We do.”

Celestia hugged Twilight as soon as they were both safely on the docks again.

“Sorry about the bad teleport, love.” Celestia looked away ashamed.

Twilight brought a hoof up, forcing Celestia to look back at her. “It wasn’t your fault. I designed those matrices too well. You’ll just have to put less power into it.”

Twilight nuzzled her. “Besides, we’ll all get better with practice. A few more runs like that, and the Celestia will be good to go for real.”

Releasing Twilight, Celestia stood. Flapping her wings once, she spoke. “Remember what tonight is?”

Twilight stood next to her in an instant. “How could I forget? We have date night once a week!”

“Good. Now, since it’s my turn… try to keep up!” She launched into the air, quickly accelerating.

Chuckling lightly, Twilight took off herself, trying to make up the distance. They flitted about the sky merrily, Twilight chasing Celestia.

Twilight would close the distance one moment and almost brush her body against Celestia, and the next Celestia would take off and flip or spin away, both ponies laughing and giggling like children.

Some other ponies in the area stopped when they noticed the two alicorns flying. Most would move on after a minute or two. For an hour, both alicorns hadn’t moved more than a hundred hooves closer to Canterlot, dancing in the sky with each other.

Twilight changed her tactic. Smirking smugly, she managed to latch onto Celestia’s back, forelegs hugging around Celestia’s barrel. She was careful to keep her wingbeats in sync with Celestia’s. Subconsciously, Celestia’s forelegs wrapped around Twilight’s own, helping hold Twilight against her.

Twilight hugged the larger alicorn, her muzzle peppering kisses along the white neck in front of her. Celestia squeaked at the contact, fading to a small purr as she ‘suffered’ from the attention Twilight lavished on her neck.

A moment later, the kisses ended and both ponies basked in the closeness of holding and being held, whispering sweet nothings to each other. Minutes later, Twilight let go and circled around, nuzzling against Celestia’s cheek.

Celestia whispered, “I know just where we’re going for our date tonight…” Tilting her head, she turned and dove softly. Twilight followed, easily keeping pace.

It had been a lovely evening. Getting takeout at the greasiest fast-food restaurant they could find followed by laughing the entire way through a few bad movies wasn’t something they did often, but it was a welcomed and refreshing change to going to any fancy-pants restaurant or a blockbuster theater packed with other stuck-up ponies.

Back in their cloud home, the couple settled down to rest for the night. Luna’s moon shone high in the sky, casting its pale glow through the few windows still open to the cool night air. Twilight held her love gently, a wing draped over the slightly larger mare’s body.

“I love you, Twilight.” The mare in her grip shifted, kissing her gently.

Twilight kissed Celestia back. “I love you too, Tia.”

Comfortable, sleep claimed them easily.

Author's Note

Written the 24th August, 2014, touched up and expanded 9th July, 2015.

Shift

It was supposed to be a routine patrol. Keep an eye out for pirates and other ne’er do wells in this area. Report if there was trouble.

Well, trouble had shown up alright. A capital ship, a dreadnaught by it’s sheer size. From the looks of it, likely stolen, with a few mismatched supporting cruisers, blockaded the trade traffic, ransoming or ransacking each ship they could, outright destroying others. As the security scout ship’s captain looked out her bridge, those pirates were making a killing, literally.

Reaching over, the scout ship’s captain hit the communicator. “Command, we’ve got a situation here. Sending live feed.”

Nodding to the moon still in the sky, Twilight stepped aboard her ship. Making her way down the dim hallways, she found her destination. Twilight sipped her coffee and hummed a small, jaunty song to herself as she entered the Celestia’s bridge. She sat down at her command console and no sooner did the communicator go off.

Curious, she opened the line. “REN Celestia. Captain Twilight Sparkle speaking.”

A gruff voice responded. “Sparkle, it’s Admiral Lightspeed. We’ve got a situation here and need an immediate response. Opening video feed.” A window popped up in front of her, displaying the scene. Twilight set her coffee down in it’s holder and watched.

Lightspeed commented, “We’ve found a dreadnaught and six supporting cruisers ransacking this trading lane.” A small map popped up on the window’s right, displaying the exact coordinates and location. “We’ve got a small fleet on the way, but I’m afraid it won’t be enough to stop that ‘naught.”

Twilight looked over the scene in front of her and snorted. “Send me your fleet composition and I’ll come up with something we can use. The Celestia will be ready to go inside twenty minutes.”

“Affirmative. And thanks, Twilight. We owe you one. Lightspeed out.” The audio feed cut out, but the map and video remained. A few seconds later, a list of ship names, types, and their captains popped up next to it.

Twilight chuckled before pressing a button on the command console. An alarm sounded, and the bridge was bathed in red light. She spoke immediately, “All hooves, report to the Celestia. We’ve been commissioned to help stop some pirates.”

She tapped another button and the message repeated. She sat back and sipped her coffee.

It was finished in a few minutes, just as the first of her crew filed into the bridge, trudging their way to their consoles. All around her, the ship slowly came to life. The reactors started humming, and everything from the engines, to the shield batteries and weapons powered up.

A golden flash heralded her marefriend’s arrival. Celestia yawned. “G‘morning Twi. What’s wrong?”

Twilight brought the video up on a much larger projector. “Lightspeed’s asked us to help take all that–” She pointed to the largest ship. “–out. We’re going to have our work cut out for us.”

Celestia nodded as she looked back to Twilight. “What is that ship? It looks familiar, but I can’t place its class.”

Twilight shrugged. “Lightspeed said it was a dreadnaught, but not what kind.”

Star Torus spoke up, “It’s one of those new Griffon ones. Mother Hen-class, if I’m looking at it right. It appears to be called the Hunting Party.” He stood up and moved over to the screen and pointed out several markings. “It’s definitely been stolen. It’s not even complete yet.”

Twilight blinked at it. “In any case, we’ve got to assist Lightspeed’s fleet in stopping it.”

Celestia looked over the fleet composition. She noticed one in the list and spoke, “Oh hey, we’ve got the Kindness coming. Nice to know we’ll have carrier support.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. And it’s one of the hardiest supporting vessels we’ve ever built.”

Celestia nuzzled Twilight. “Well, I’ll head down to the Supercharger and get it warmed up.”

Twilight eagerly returned the affection. “Thanks, love.”

As Celestia exited the bridge, Twilight looked over her officers. Helm was strapped in, and the sound dampeners couldn’t quite drown out the engines firing up.

“Is the board green?” was all she asked.

Helm replied first, “Aye, sir.”

The communications officer chimed in, “It is, ma’am.”

Torus spoke last, “Engineering’s green here. Ma’am.”

Twilight radioed the tower. “Canterlot Tower, this is Captain Twilight Sparkle of the REN Celestia, requesting permission to leave dock.”

“Celestia, this is Canterlot Tower. You’re clear to proceed.”

“Affirmative Tower, Celestia out. Helm, let’s get out of here.”

The docking clamps released and the Celestia was off.

Once in orbit, Twilight got ahold of Lightspeed’s fleet. They’d be the dark horse in the fight, teleporting in behind the pirates as the fleet itself engaged directly.

Things hadn’t gone as planned. Celestia misjudged the teleport, landing directly between the two engaging fleets. Directly in front of the dreadnaught’s charging main gun.

From the bridge, Twilight slammed down the on the intercom. “Celestia! Supercharge the banks! It’s gonna fire!”

Wasting no time, Celestia’s horn lit and she practically poured her power into the banks near her. She watched the display climb to forty, then onto fifty percent full.

Back on the bridge, Twilight called out, “Supercharger power to the forward shields!”

The meter stopped rising. Despite that, Celestia kept pouring power into the banks. The forward emitters shuddered before glowing gold, a matching half-bowl shield forming around the front of the ship.

The bridge’s view was obscured by the opaque shield. Visibly, the dreadnaught’s main gun sparked and lightning danced across its hull. “Brace–” Then the cannon discharged.

It all happened in slow motion to Twilight. She saw the arc of light leave the gun’s chamber. In what was actually a split second later, but felt like minutes, the massive shell collided with the supercharged shield, disintegrating and imparting its mass onto the field. The field warped and bent, but otherwise held as the shell’s remnants spilled off at a fraction the speed of light behind it.

Then it was over. The shield’s glow faded, returning to normal. She keyed the intercom again. “Celestia, power levels?”

Celestia looked over to the bank’s readout. Panting, she replied, “Twenty six percent, Captain. More than enough to get us home, but not enough for another hit like that. My reserves are pretty well done, otherwise.”

Twilight commanded, “Then let’s teleport behind them. It’ll be a few moments until it can fire that gun again, so now’s our chance.”

“Agreed, teleport in ten seconds.”

Twilight pressed a button she had programmed. A blue light lit and everypony braced themselves.

The ship shined gold and disappeared. Helm immediately took advantage of their newfound freedom and gunned the engines. The Celestia took off, before turning around sharply.

“Helm, Gunnery, target the closest cruiser.” The ship angled and soon all the fore-mounted cannons pointed at a cruiser. It was just starting to turn, but it wouldn’t be fast enough.

Twilight shouted, “All cannons, fire!”

The Celestia’s six main cannons fired several volleys, shredding the ship’s rear shields and tearing into its engines. One shot managed to find its way into the cruiser’s engineering section. The cruiser’s engines suddenly went dark and it started drifting.

“Excellent shot, gunnery!” Twilight highlighted another cruiser. “Now, let’s get that other cruiser!”

Another few volleys and a third of the dreadnaught’s support was now inoperable. A voice cut through, desperate. “Celestia this is the Kindness. We’re taking major fire from that ‘naught. We’ve taken one hit from its main gun already. Please hurry!”

“You heard them, Troubleshooters. Let’s stop that Dreadnaught.” Helm took the initiative, closing the distance behind the Hunting Party. The Celestia’s cannons fired again, not even getting close to breaching the shields.

Twilight swore. “Damnit!” She contacted the Kindness. “Kindness, we can’t break its shields. We need more firepower to overwhelm it!” Twilight’s mind furiously worked to find a solution.

“Kindness, Celestia. We’re directing all ships to help, but if that dreadnaught isn’t disabled before it fires that gun again, this ship is lost.” Twilight struck upon an epiphany.

“Affirmative Kindness, I have one idea that just might work. Celestia out.”

She called up Celestia. “Celly, shift places with me.”

“What?! Are you crazy?”

“No. You’re tired, and the most magic I’ve used today was lifting my coffee cup.”

“But this chamber was designed for me!”

“It was designed for any alicorn to use. It’s just tuned specifically for you, so you’d be the most efficient with it.”

“I still say no.”

“And I’m overruling. Celestia, you take the bridge. I will charge the ship.”

“I-Fine. Just leave your plan with the officers. I’ll be up shortly. Celestia out.”

The officers on the bridge, sans Helm, stared open mouthed at her. She regarded them as she commanded, “Alright, here’s the plan. Gunnery, I’m going to supercharge the banks, use that energy for the cannons. Strike as hard as you can. If the shields go down with some of my magic left, focus on the engines and engineering. If we can get the dreadnaught drifting, it’ll not be able to strike much. After that, go for anything that looks weak and vulnerable. Punch as many holes into it as you can. Engineering, keep forward shields full, dip into the Supercharger if you have to.” They nodded as Twilight stood.

The door ‘fwooshed’ open and Celestia walked in. “Dear, I’m not happy about this. I can’t command your ship like this…”

Twilight made her way over to Celestia and nuzzled her softly. “It’s not my ship. It’s ours.” She stepped away. “Besides, you shouldn’t have to. I just gave them the plan. It’s time for me to help in this fight.”

As Celestia sat down in her console, Twilight walked out. Making her way to the ship’s underside, she entered the Supercharger chamber. The room was mostly round, with two main consoles sitting next to each other. Along the walls were twelve large magical capacitor banks feeding into the floor and ceiling. Big and bulky, they were essentially empty giant magical batteries that needed a good charging. Some of them glowed golden, from Celestia’s magical charge present inside them. A series of magic attunement and amplification runes were etched into the floor and ceiling. She stepped into the chamber and her hackles rose, responding to the magic already in play.

“Showtime.” She stepped to the first console, verifying its readout. ‘Twenty six percent charged. Let’s fix that.’ Charging the first two banks, she noticed her reserves already a quarter missing. She checked the readout, forty one percent. Keying up to the bridge, she spoke, “Bridge, Twilight. I’m charging the banks now. Execute the plan.”

Twilight continued focusing on charging the banks. ‘Sixty percent. Sixty five percent.’

On the bridge, Celestia watched as the crew worked fast. Helm took the ship closer to the rear, trying her best to dodge any fire directed their way. Gunnery worked quickly, the cannons firing as fast as they could with the supercharged shells. Celestia kept an eye on the Supercharger’s readout and it kept steady, despite the constant draw.

After a minute, the draw greatly outmatched the flow into them. Celestia watched as each volley pulled the banks closer and closer to empty. Twilight’s voice called over to the bridge, “Bridge,–” Twilight panted for a few seconds. “–Twilight. I’m spent. What you’ve got is what you’ve got.” The link went dead as a thump sounded.

Gunnery yelled. “Shields are down. Hit the engines!” The six cannons trained on different engines and fired simultaneously. Three went out and trained on the engineering sections behind them.

This, as well as the rest of the battle, all went unnoticed as Celestia tore out of the bridge as she heard that thump. Not thirty seconds later she entered the chamber to see Twilight passed out next to the console, the only sign of life was her chest rising and falling as she breathed. ‘You did it, Twilight.’ She pulled her marefriend into a tight embrace, hugging Twilight like she’d disintegrate at any moment.

“Bridge to Supercharger. Anyone alive down there?” echoed through the chamber.

Celestia keyed up. “Celestia here. Twilight’s out cold, but she’ll be fine.”

“Good to know, ma’am. You might want to come up here, there’s a comm-line asking for her. Since she placed you in command, you’re gonna have to take it.”

Reluctantly, Celestia set Twilight down comfortably in the console’s chair and stood. “Affirmative, I’ll be up shortly. Celestia out.” She kissed Twilight under her horn and walked out.

Celestia arrived back in the bridge. She sat down in Twilight’s chair, opening the waiting comm link. “This is the Celestia.”

“Celestia, this is the Kindness. Whatever you just did worked. The Hunting Party’s drifting aimlessly and it’s main gun is offline. We’re mopping up the rest of them. Thank you for the help, we can take it from here.”

“Affirmative, Kindness. We’ll take our leave, then. Celestia out.” Celestia cut the link and stood up. “Helm, I’m going to teleport us back to Equus. Get us clear and brace for teleport in sixty.”

Helm nodded. “Roger that, ma’am.”

Celestia walked out and back to the Supercharger. She left Twilight to sleep at her console. She stepped over to the other one, the teleporter. Setting a destination just outside Equus, she let the remaining charge in the banks do the work for her and the ship flashed violet around her. Not even bothering to get up, she opened a comm link with the Canterlot Tower.

“Canterlot Tower, this is Acting Captain Celestia of the REN Celestia. Requesting permission to dock.”

“Acting Captain Celestia, this is Canterlot Tower. We read you. Docking permission granted.”

“Thanks Tower. For the record, the captain only needs a little R&R.”

The pony on the other end chuckled. “That’s good to hear, Acting Captain. Tower out.”

As the ship settled into dock, Twilight stirred. “Mm… wha?” She looked around blearily. “What happened?”

Celestia rushed over and checked on her marefriend. “Shh, dear. You passed out from over-extending yourself.” She held Twilight down as she tried to stand. “Sit. Dear, don’t worry. We won, thanks to you.”

Twilight had the decency to blush and look away awkwardly. “We did?”

Celestia nodded. “We did. We’re back in Canterlot now, and we saved the Kindness to boot.” She nuzzled Twilight. “Though, I’m thinking some punishment is in order for pulling rank like that.” Twilight’s ears pinned back.

“I-I…” She suddenly found her hooves very fascinating. She whispered something back.

“Twily?”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight suddenly wailed. “It was the only thing I could think of!”

Celestia scooped her up. “Twilight.”

“Please don’t punish me!”

A hoof found its way to Twilight’s mouth. She looked up to see Celestia’s half-lidded eyes. “Dear, I wasn’t talking about punishment. I was talking about punishment.” She put a lot of emphasis on the final word, throwing bedroom eyes at her marefriend.

“Oh. Oh!” Twilight’s face was more scarlet than lavender now. Her back straightened and she looked Celestia in the eyes. “Very well. I accept whatever punishment you deem fit.”

Celestia chuckled. “Well, let’s be off then. You need a little time to recuperate after that ordeal.”

Twilight’s stomach agreed, rumbling loudly. “Can we get some food first?”

Celestia nodded and the pair set off, bellies locked on to the closest all-you-can-eat buffet.

Author's Note

Written the 10th September, 2014. Polished and rereleased 10th July, 2015.

Triple

Celestia rushed about one of the Celestia's three main wings. Stopping for a few seconds to get her bearings, she glanced out the nearby window, spying one of the other main wings drifting a few hundred feet away. Its thrusters were firing, but not anywhere near full power. She was just grateful that the Celestia had held together long enough to teleport to friendly space, just in orbit over Equus.

"Shoot, I've got to get over there!" She took off again toward the airlocks. Twilight had been very thorough in her design of the ship. Each of the three main sections, or wings, had its own miniature engineering and communications sections that all linked up to complete the entire system's grid, and in turn were linked to the Supercharger chamber that held it all together. In the event of major structural damage to the linking harnesses and supports, and separation from the other two wings, the lone floating segment could operate on its own at reduced capacity, defending itself until recovery and repairs could be made.

Celestia thought back to how the day had started. The Troubleshooters had received not one, but three simultaneous calls for support. The first was a small freighter whose crew and cargo had been taken hostage. The second was a small station being pounded on by a pair of renegade battlecruisers, and the final call was for two frigates assaulting and immobilizing a large luxury cruiser.

She all but flew into the airlock as she recalled the first response. It had been easy, arrive, teleport herself and three of the crew's combat specialists over to the freighter, and she talked the pirates down without resorting to violence.

As she depressurized the airlock, she wove a spell about her head that generated a continuous bubble of air to breathe. As fate would have it, the magic that assisted pegasi in flight worked in space's vacuum, but the pony in question could only stay in space for short periods of time due to the extreme temperature changes. They also still needed to breathe, but for Celestia, that problem had already been solved.

Exiting the airlock's other side into space proper, she got a good look at what damage had been done before starting her journey over to the damaged wing.

The second call had been much more bloody. As the Celestia arrived on the scene, a third battlecruiser revealed itself and opened fire.

"Ambush!" Twilight had called out as the enemy ship's relatively basic weaponry scored multiple hits. "Helm, get us moving!"

"Already on it, ma'am." Helm called back, shifting and pushing the engines to a full burn.

"Gunnery, lock them up and shut them down," Twilight commanded over the intercom. Within seconds the enemy ships were all taking fire. She turned and looked over to Star Torus. "Torus, when will we have our shields back up?"

Without looking back he calmly responded, "Eighty seconds, Captain. We accidentally jumped the starting line and now the matrices need to be hard-reset." The Celestia had thick armor plating underneath her shields, but even the strongest rocks wear down and erode under constant assault.

The other two battlecruisers decided to join in and their guns targeted the Celestia as well, just as the first battlecruiser succumbed to the larger ship's retaliation.

"Hull breach in wing three, deck two!" A voice called over the intercom. "Emergency environmental shields deployed and holding. Several injuries, but no casualties reported."

"How long, Torus?" Twilight asked again, looking over the two remaining enemy ships. They'd split up to try to get away from the Celestia's guns, but only succeeded in sealing their fates to be destroyed as individuals.

"Twenty seconds, Captain." The second battlecruiser was blown apart even faster than the first, and Helm had started a fast turn to take on the final ship.

"Shields up, Captain." No sooner had he said it, the entire viewing window tinted a rusty red color and the 'Low Shielding Power' indicator stopped flashing on Twilight's console.

Twilight nodded and keyed the intercom again. "Good, I want us ready to teleport to the third zone as soon as we've finished this last one off. We're going to need to do more than buff these dents out when we're done."

The third battlecruiser started up in a ball of flame as it blew into several large chunks, drifting helplessly. After a small call to the station, the Celestia teleported away.

Celestia touched down on the separated wing, darting into the first airlock she spotted. ‘Please be alright…’ she thought as she made her way inside. The first thing she noticed were several environmental containment shields still running despite the damage to the wing, a good sign.

About ten seconds after the Celestia arrived onto the third scene, a communications channel opened. “Well well well, what do we have here?” A minotaur sneered over the video screen, reclined back in his throne of a chair. Celestia was sitting next to Twilight, her mask firmly in place. “A wayward ex-princess still trying to save ‘her little ponies’, and her little purple lover, falling right into my clutches.” He chuckled, the deep basso sound rumbling through the Celestia’s bridge. “There seems to be a small problem here, my crew and I were merely relieving these stupid nobles their money and belongings. I was going to drop them off on the nearest civilized planet, honest.” His smile turned vicious as he yelled, “I’ll settle for taking your ship, instead. Your heads will make fine trophies for my wall.”

“Captain! All three ships are targeting us!” The mare running the communications array yelled.

“Well, this chat was fun, but I must get down to business.” The screen went blank almost immediately afterward.

Celestia darted down the wing’s narrow passages, intent on finding her. During the ensuing battle, they’d been separated, and only now was Celestia able to start looking. She found several bodies, both friend and foe, but Twilight was still nowhere to be found.

A little tiny spot of lavender caught her eye as she sped down a corridor. She spun around and investigated it, finding a lone feather, still bloody at the tip. The corridor it sat just outside was sealed, and there was another bit of another feather stuck in the door. Celestia’s hope and fear both spiked as she looked at the two feathers.

Try as she might, she couldn’t teleport beyond the sealed bulkhead. She had no frame of reference, nor could she see past it. Bringing her power to bear, she scooped up the two feathers, as much as she could for the second one, and held them to her chest. ‘Hold on, Twily. I’m coming.’ Holding them delicately, she lit her horn again and touched it to the door. Slowly, she began the process of melting her way through the bulkhead door, trying not to vaporize whatever may or may not lay beyond.

Twilight soon found out how two little frigates had captured the much larger cruiser without damaging it. One of them maintained some kind of disabling pulse that disrupted the combat, propulsion, and shielding systems entirely, leaving the rest of the ship, like the life support systems, intact and running. She knew that, because no sooner had communications been cut, a pulse rocked the Celestia, knocking it into a helpless drift.

She watched through the windows as the other frigate and the cruiser pulled up and docked, while the other watched, rather large weapons for a ship it’s size trained on them. Twilight keyed the thankfully-still-working intercom, “All hooves, repel the boarding parties, the bridge will coordinate all defense efforts.”

Celestia watched her lover take command of the situation easily. “Twilight, what would have me do?”

“‘Tia, go to the supercharger, and get ready to teleport us. The teleporter should work, it’s on a closed loop.” She stood from her chair and pointed to Star Torus. “Torus, go with her. Protect her with your life.” He nodded and stood as she looked back to Celestia with a forlorn expression, her ears pinned back. “As far as where we go, I don’t care where. Just anywhere but here.”

“Crew, we’ve been boarded. I’m going out to help, and Helm has the bridge while I’m gone. Try to coordinate everypony as best you can.” She turned to the door and took several steps.

“Aye ma’am.” Helm released herself from her harness and took her place at the captain’s console. She saluted as Twilight walked past.

“‘Tia, Torus, get moving. I’m going to buy you as much time as I can. We need to get out of here to stand a chance.” She moved over to Celestia, and kissed her sweetly. “Be safe, please.”

“I should be with you, we always were better together…” Celestia spoke softly.

Twilight chuckled. “You’re right. But this time, we’re better off separate. I bet that bull is on the ship right now, looking for the chance to tear you apart. He’s only tangentially looking for me, to use me as some bargaining chip to get you to face him. He won’t kill me, not as soon as he finds me, anyways.”

Celestia nuzzled Twilight softly before moving over to Torus. “Let’s go.” Torus nodded and led the way.

The six-inch thick bulkhead door now had roughly a Celestia-sized hole, and she got a clear look into the room. It was almost like looking into a large storeroom. From what littered the shelves, this storeroom held the wing’s foodstuffs and water storage tanks. The feathers she’d been holding dropped to the floor softly seeing the other side. ‘So much blood…’ A crash inside the room set Celestia’s face into a firm scowl as she stormed in, her horn lit. “Show yourself!”

“‘T-Tia?” a voice replied weakly. Celestia took wing

“Twily? Where are you?”

“Ov–” A cry rang out. “–Over here.” Celestia followed the sound of Twilight’s voice, noticing the blood only pooled more and more.

“Keep talking to me, Twily. Help me find you.”

“Over h-here, ‘Tia.”

Celestia rounded a corner and found Twilight.

“Torus, keep them away from the consoles!” Celestia called out as she and Torus fought off a pair of gryphon assailants. Though she was not actively casting magic at them, the two were always wary of the way the ex-princess’s horn was lit.

A few seconds later, one of the two made the mistake of letting Celestia get too close and caught a hoof in the face for that mistake, dropping to the ground, unconscious. Torus caught the other with one of his arms, clotheslining the poor thing before pinning the bird to the ground.

The ship suddenly started rumbling. Helm’s voice called over the intercom, “Celestia, Twilight, this is the bridge. The remaining ship has opened fire, and engineering says it’s on the supporting harnesses. We need to get out of here, now!”

Celestia quickly made her way over to the teleporter console. “Torus, tie them up. We’ll deal with them when we’re safe.” She looked over the charge remaining in the banks and deemed it acceptable for a teleport. Her horn lit and she started channelling the teleport spell into the matrices.

Torus keyed the emergency intercom. “All hooves, brace for RTB. Repeat, brace for RTB.” A tear rang through the ship as their world flashed gold.

Twilight lay on top of the minotaur from earlier, her neck stuck at an odd angle, and her horn was missing. One of her wings was bleeding heavily, and she looked to be in pain. “‘Tia, a lit-little help here?” she asked weakly. “I can’t get free.”

As she approached, Celestia noticed Twilight’s horn stuck into the back of the minotaur’s skull at an odd angle. “What happened?”

“I was wro-wrong. He didn’t ca-care which of us he kill-killed first,” she stuttered painfully.

Celestia eased the pressure on Twilight’s neck by lifting the massive minotaur slightly. “There, try to pull your horn out now.”

It slid out easily enough, letting Twilight drop down to the floor. “T-Thanks.”

Celestia fussed over Twilight’s condition, giving her a good once-over. She’d broken her wing and a foreleg, that much was obvious. Touching Twilight’s barrel received a cry of pain and fresh tears came to the younger mare’s eyes.

Trying to get Twilight’s mind off the pain she asked, “Twily? How’d you manage to impale him like that?” Grabbing an emergency medical kit, she set about trying to patch up or diagnose Twilight’s wounds as best she could.

“I hi–” Twilight hissed again painfully. She motioned to the shelf that was toppled “–hit that sh-shelf while dodging one of his attacks. He hit the sam-same shelf and toppled over.” Twilight cringed as an emergency sling set about her broken leg. “The shelf clipped, twisted, and broke my wing, and I fell onto the back of his skull.”

Celestia chuckled. “Truly?” Twilight nodded. Celestia looked over the massive minotaur’s frame. “It is a good thing, then. I doubt you could’ve beaten him alone.” Twilight nodded and Celestia cuddled her wounded lover gently, wordlessly letting Twilight know she was safe now.

The Celestia flashed into existence in orbit around their home planet just as a series of explosions went off and warning klaxons blared. Twilight looked out the nearest window to see the Celestia now in several pieces and floating, but the other three ships were nowhere to be found. ‘You did it ‘Tia. We’re home and now we’ve got to stop these intruders.’

A crash sounded from nearby. Twilight looked to see the minotaur the videoscreen earlier down the hall. “I found you! Now I kill you!” he yelled, launching into a charge. Twilight fled down another corridor, narrowly dodging him. He charged again and she ducked into the storeroom. A sharp pain roared through her right wing and she saw him behind her with a pair of feathers in his hand. She took off deeper into the storeroom in fright.

Tossing the feathers behind him he shouted, “You’re too slow, little one. For that, you shall pay with your life!” His hand crushed the panel next to the doorway and it slammed shut. He stalked the aisles, ears and eyes constantly shifting, looking for his target.

A small squeak sounded from his right, and he lashed out at the shelves, toppling the entire thing to the ground. Twilight, scared out of her wits, screamed and took wing instinctively as the shelves fell. He charged, but misjudged the gap in the shelving, falling to the floor, taking another shelf with him.

Twilight screamed as the shelf caught her already bleeding wing and wrenched it from its socket and her from the air. The last thing she felt was her horn hitting something, hard.

The clopping of a pony approached, and Celestia helped Twilight sit up, wrapping a wing protectively over her. Helm rounded the corner. “Good, I found you. We’ve got rescue ships coming in.” Helm sighed. “The Celestia will need to stay in space for these repairs. Bringing her down will only make the damage worse. A frigate’s coming to pick us all up.” Helm noticed the dead minotaur and whistled. “Wow Captain, remind me never to piss you off.”

That caused Twilight to laugh, a short little bark of joy, before her chest reasserted its pain. Celestia chuckled before comforting Twilight. Coughing lightly she continued, “Thank you, Helm. I-I needed that laugh.”

“No problem, ma’am. Now, let’s get you out of here.”

Celestia nodded. Twilight made an effort to stand, motioning for Celestia to unfold her now bloodied wing. “Lemme up, please.”

“Twilight…” Celestia stood quickly, looking down to her lover softly.

“If I can walk, I will walk. If I cannot, then you can carry me, is that fair?” Twilight gritted her teeth as she stood. Taking a few tentative steps, the pain proved too much and she fell again. “I…” Her ears pinned back and tears welled in her eyes.

“Shh… shh… it’s alright, love.” Celestia knelt down and nuzzled Twilight, not worried about the blood accumulating on her coat now. Her horn lit and she stood, lifting Twilight gingerly. “Let’s go home.”

Author's Note

Written the 11th October, 2014. Polished and re-released 10th July, 2015.

And that's it for the chapters I'll post today, folks. There's more to come, though, as I expand and polish them to a fine shine.

Wedding

Author's Note

If you're unfamiliar with the Troubleshooters 'verse, you may want to read the Syzygy prompt here. It contains the most relevant information. Though, I'd recommend the entire series, but I'm just biased. I wrote it!

Also thanks to CVBrony, author of Rites of Ascension for helping me with Celestia's name.

Wedding

A pop signified someone teleporting into the room. Turning, Twilight found none other than Discord standing there.

Before she had a chance to voice her surprise, he spoke. “So, Twilight, what’s the plan for this thing?”

Stunned and wide-eyed, she could only ask, “What?”

His expression turned serious. “What’s the plan for this thing, Twilight?” He waggled his eyebrows. “Or should I say Captain Sparkle?”

“What?” she asked again, taking a step back.

Smirking devilishly, his voice gained volume, “What, a cat got your tongue?”

Twilight blinked, and she was suddenly looking at a lion with Discord’s head. “What?”

He took a look at his paws and answered his own question, “Well, I guess not.” He looked back to find her eyes the size of pinpricks and she’d backed up another half-dozen paces. He turned and looked himself over. “What, do I have something in my mane?”

Twilight blinked again, and he was back to normal.

A tiny Discord knocked on her head, just to the left of her horn. “Equus to Twily, hello? I hope you haven’t forgotten how to speak Equuish in the time I’d been gone!”

She shrieked “What?” and hopped back again, backing into the wall.

The door opened, Celestia walking through the portal. Discord whirled, arms spread wide. “Tia! How are you, darling! I’ve just been trying to speak to dear Twily here, but she seems only to–”

He was instantly grabbed in a yellow aura and brought to Celestia. “Discord! What have you–”

Despite her firm magical grasp, he reached over and shut her mouth. “I have done nothing, Celestia. I merely came to visit and ask how I may be of service for the wedding.” He released her mouth, looking over to see Twilight’s terrified expression.

“Wedding? But we haven–” She smacked a hoof to her head. “–you’re Discord. Of course you’d know.”

He smiled brightly. “Now you’re catching on! It’s like I was asking Twily–”

At the mention of her name, she spoke, “What?”

His smile turned devilish. “What planet you from? I ain’t heard of a planet called What. They speak Equuish on What?”

Celestia immediately saw what he was up to and slapped him. “No. You are not allowed to quote old movies at us.”

Crocodile tears in his eyes, he threw his best puppy-dog stare at Celestia. “Please? Just this once?”

“No.” Setting him down, she moved over to Twilight. “Twi? Honey? Are you alright?” She wrapped a wing around Twilight’s shaking form, pulling the trembling mare tight against her.

Twilight almost literally flung herself at Celestia the moment their coats touched. Her eyes never left Discord, but her shaking stopped considerably. Celestia rested her head on top of Twilight’s whispering and cooing to calm the younger mare down. “Shh. It’s alright love. He’s not bad, remember?”

Discord played along, conjuring a halo over his head. As it descended into proper position, it snagged on his antler, tilting. He swatted at it to knock it free and it slid into place. He exclaimed, “I promise!” like he hadn’t been totally listening in.

He cowered in fake fear until Celestia shot him a dirty look, turning his fake cowering into more convincing half-fake cowering. “What do you really want, Discord?”

The halo vanished. “I’m being serious for once. I actually want to help.” He held his eagle claw up. “Scout’s honor.”

Twilight calmed down some, her eyes no longer pinpricks, but her stance was still tense. Celestia spoke firmly, “We haven’t even started planning yet–”

He launched into the air, startling them both. “You haven’t started yet? Oh no no no, no! That simply will not do!” He snapped his talons and a stack of wedding-planning magazines and books appeared on the table. He pulled up a chair and immediately grabbed a magazine.

“What are you doing here, Discord?” Twilight finally found her voice.

He looked up from the magazine. Slowly and calmly, so as not to startle her, he spoke, “I already explained that, I’m here to help with the wedding.”

“Why?” she asked, leaning out from Celestia’s wing a little.

“Why not?” he shot back.

“Even all the time we’ve known you, the only pony you’ve ever really helped was Fluttershy. After she passed, and the funeral was held, you all but disappeared.” Tears in her eyes, she hiccuped once. “Why now? Why did you come back now?”

He was shaken. “I… how long has it been?”

“Four-hundred and fifty-two years this summer,” Twilight replied, causing Discord to freeze, his eyes widening in shock. “I… we all missed you. After the first century, even Tia had given up hope that you would show up again.” Celestia nodded.

A tear in his own eye, he whispered, “I hadn’t known.” The magazine made its way back to the table. “I’m sorry, Twilight, Celestia. I hadn’t known.”

“What happened? Where did you go?”

“To Elysium,” his reply came like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I spent some more time with Fluttershy, Pinkie, Dash, Applejack, and even Rarity!” His claw and paw made their way to his face as the realization hit. “I’m sorry! If I had known…” He broke down completely, sobbing uncontrollably.

A pair of hooves made their way around him, guiding his head against her barrel. Discord’s eyes opened and he saw a field of lavender in front of him. He wrapped his arms around her and wept openly. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry…” He felt her tears drip onto him as he cried into her.

One of her hooves worked its way behind his head, holding him comfortingly. Celestia came up next to her and joined, helping console the distraught pair. She wrapped her wings around them, pulling both into her embrace.

After a few minutes, both Twilight and Discord calmed down enough to break away. “Twilight, Celestia. I’m truly, truly–”

A violet glow shut his mouth. “We know, Dis. You’re sorry. We had no way to contact you. Any messages we sent, like from Spike’s dragonfire, were destroyed. It was like you were…”

“Dead, yeah.” He chuckled. “I told you, I was in Elysium.”

“How did you manage that?” Twilight asked, her eyes puffy.

“Spirit of Chaos, remember? There’s a whole bunch of stuff I can do that nopony else can.” He perked up as if remembering something. “They’re all doing wonderfully, by the way. They also miss you, likely as much as you miss them.”

That sent a fresh wave of tears to Twilight’s eyes, but she smiled. “I’m glad to hear that they’re doing good.”

He hugged them both. “I really, truly want to help with the wedding, alright?”

After sharing a look, both ponies nodded. “If you want to help, we’d welcome it.”

“What do you think about these colors?” Discord asked, holding up a light purple color swab with a dark blue one.

“They do match my coat and mane. But they won’t work with Celestia’s colors.” She stepped up next to him, confirming that they did.

“Dear, nothing works with both our colors at the same time.” Celestia pulled a light blue swab out and compared it to the streak in her mane.

“What about black? That goes with everything.”

“We are not having black as a major color at our wedding, Dis.” He started pouting. “We want a wedding, not a funeral.”

The pout faded. “Right.” He looked over the swabs until two colors stood out. A lightbulb appeared over his head, between his horn and antler. “How about these two?”

“Perfect.”

Six months later…

“Ah ah! No peeking!” Discord corralled Celestia, herding her away from Twilight’s room.

“Dis, I already know what her dress is! I helped her design parts of it!” She half-heartedly fought his attempts to get her to leave.

“And? It’s still bad luck for a mare to see her special somepony the day before the ceremony!”

Celestia huffed. “Fine. But you get to help her dress tomorrow. I’ve got Luna helping me.”

“That was my plan, dear.”

A beautiful spring morning sun greeted Celestia as she rose. ‘Thanks, Luna.’ She looked over to the dress on the ponykin in the corner. It, and the ponykin, had to be custom designed for her size. An elegant, white silk made up the dress’ main body, Celestia’s own not-quite perfectly-white coat stood out radiantly with it. Golden laurels spiraled and danced across its surface and down the train. The sides were left mostly open so her wings wouldn’t be restricted, and to help show off her own coat’s color. Her normal golden hoofcovers and peytral were integrated into the ensemble, giving her her two major colors. Instead of her normal tiara, a golden wreathe with her own cutie mark and Twilight’s inlaid sat on top of the ponykin’s head.

After a quick shower and breakfast, Luna showed up. Her sister had aged well since her redemption. They now looked each other in the eye equally, Luna standing as tall as she did now. Gone was the small onyx tiara, signifying that she was the younger sister. Once Luna had rivalled Celestia in height, a new tiara and peytral were forged for her. The remnants of Nightmare Moon’s armor was smelted and forged into a new blue-silver tiara and peytral. The tiara was the same size and shape Celestia had, a trio of diamonds resting in the center. Like Celestia’s peytral, a massive amethyst sat directly in its center, with Luna’s crescent moon cutie mark in studded diamonds around it.

“Sister?” Luna asked nervously.

Celestia looked over into the mirror with one eye as Luna helped apply her makeup. “Yes, Lu?”

“Today’s the big day.” Luna looked nervous. “I hope all goes as planned, Tia.”

She looked out the window. “It will. I couldn’t have asked for a more lovely day to hold it, either.”

Celestia jumped as Luna affixed a small pair of earrings to each ear, one pair of an orange sun with a blue moon inlaid, the other pair of a tiny emerald star.

Twilight woke with a start. She’d not slept well, but made sure to get to bed early to compensate for sleep quality.

She looked over to her own ponykin and wedding dress, both also custom-tailored. Her own dress was a deep, royal purple. Like Celestia’s, the sides were kept open for her wings. Excepting the Element of Magic and her coronation, Twilight never really wore a crown or tiara, so a new one was forged for her for this occasion. A small little thing, like Luna’s old tiara, but in a matching deep purple steel alloy. The trickiest part wasn’t in forging the crown itself, but in forging it at the proper temperature and metal mixture for it to retain its color. A large diamond was inset in it, enchanted to hold the tiara to the wearer’s head, no matter their relative position or how much gravity wanted to say otherwise.

The dress’ barrel was an inspiration from Discord, a design of each of her friends’ cutie marks, Luna’s, Shining’s, and Cadence’s cutie marks surrounding her own and Celestia’s. A green flame represented Spike, and a dark grey eight pointed star signified Discord on each shoulder. Her train was simple, a lighter purple that faded to white as it reached the ground, golden embroidery designed to show her cutie mark with Celestia’s inlaid into the big star.

A knock at the door grabbed her attention. “Wake up, Twiley! Rise and shine!” The door opened and Discord strolled through, a breakfast tray in paw. As he looked at the mare still tangled in her sheets he exclaimed, “Goodness! We’ve got our work cut out for us!”

“I still need a shower, Dis.”

“I should say so, you look like you just rolled out of bed.”

Twilight shot him a flat look before chuckling and shaking her head. “I just did.”

“Then let’s not waste any time!” He grabbed her and took off to the bathroom.

A quick, indignant shower later and she was clean.

She spoke between bites of a bagel, “You didn’t have to help.”

“I did too! You haven’t seen the time, have you?”

Glancing at the clock, she stuffed the rest of her breakfast in her mouth. “Ponyfeathers! I’ve got to get dressed!”

“Twi, that’s why I’m here. Tia sent me to help, just in case.”

“Oh thank Celestia.” Twilight blinked. “Literally, in this case.”

“Just make sure you make it up to her tonight.” He winked.

She blushed and refused to meet his gaze.

The day was perfect. Despite everyone trying to keep it a small, secret affair, word had gotten out about the wedding months before. Anyone who was anyone wanted to attend, the newsponies wanted to cover the event, everyone else wanted to go just to say they’d been there when Twilight Sparkle and Celestia got hitched. In short, the small event turned out to be the event of the decade. Plans had changed, the small ceremony was thrown out in favor of renting out the largest building they could, Canterlot’s aerosports megadome. The owner didn’t even charge, once word got out. ‘The publicity alone would make a fortune,’ was the reason. A stage was erected, reporters and their crews hovering and staged all throughout, ready to start. The Federal Guard was mobilized to provide security, a dozen escort gunships hovered on standby just in case anyone tried anything, and what could only begin to be described as an army stood guard and ready to protect the ceremony.

Luna stood at the stage’s center, next to an altar, her regalia freshly shined and polished. In front of her, bench seating, packed with the Celestia’s crew, was separated by a rich red carpet. Discord wouldn’t budge on the carpet being red for some reason, so it was. The carpets led to a pair of tents meant to house the two most important ponies of the day until it was time for their big reveal. The stadium around them was packed and the crowd’s collective voices was a dull roar in her ears. She eyed the minotaur at the piano off to the side, watching him limber up his fingers.

Discord popped in next to her. “We’re ready.” A few seconds later, Cadance leaned out of a tent, flashing a big smile in Luna’s direction, nodding once.

“Good. Let us get this show on the road!” Luna reared up, kicking her forehooves excitedly. Discord popped back away, a goofy grin on his face.

The traditional marriage music started, the minotaur playing beautifully.

Cadance, matching Twilight’s height - just shorter than Celestia and Luna, emerged from the tent, hoof-in-hoof with Celestia. Cadance’s dress was similar to the one she’d worn during Twilight’s coronation, her mane even done up in the ceremonial Crystal Pony Headdress. Luna noticed Cadance lacked the scar on her left foreleg and right ear, from the fight with the Changelings’ second attempted-kidnapping-turned-attempted-assassination two centuries back and felt for magic with her own. The only magic that Cadance had used was a minor illusion, the scars were still there, just hidden from those not actually looking for them. She walked hoof-in-hoof with Celestia up the aisle, only splitting apart once they reached the altar. She took her place, behind Celestia as her mare of honor.

Spike stood on the other side, with his age he grew immensely, his form magically had to be shrunk so he could easily fit on the stage. All four looked eagerly at the other tent, waiting for Twilight to emerge.

And emerge she did. Discord walking with her, his paw around her left foreleg. Both Twilight and Celestia froze when they saw the other in their dress. Discord leaned down and asked, “Beautiful, isn’t she?”

Twilight nodded, her eyes not leaving Celestia.

“Let’s go get her, then.” A tug on her leg started her walking again.

Celestia, for her part, tried to describe Twilight’s beauty. The Equuish language failed to capture the required description, and was quickly discarded. As Celestia went through each language she’d learned over her life, discarding it like trash, she only stopped when Discord and Twilight reached the altar. When they were standing next to Celestia, Luna signaled the minotaur to finish. Discord handed Twilight over to Celestia, who smiled and wrapped her closest foreleg around hers.

Luna, using a small mic attached to her peytral, spoke through the loudspeakers. “Dear friends, family, and well wishers all: we are gathered here today to witness the union of two ponies, Ex-Princess Celestia Astralis Lightbringer, and Ex-Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. We all know and love them, but not as much as they love each other!”

A loud chuckle rippled through the crowd. Both Twilight and Celestia quirked an eyebrow Luna’s way. She shook her head and covered the mic. “It was a last minute change to the script.”

Rolling their eyes, they both smiled.

Luna uncovered the mic and continued, “In the years they have been together, their love and understanding of each other has grown and matured, and now they have decided to live their lives together.”

“Do each of you have your own vows?” Luna asked, full-well knowing the answer before seeing both ponies nod.

She looked to Twilight first, who cleared her throat. “Celestia, in my long life, I’ve known you for all but the first seven of those years. I aspired to be just like you, one of the greatest mages the world has ever seen, maybe even raise the sun one day. That dream slowly changed after I became your Faithful Student, and again when I became the Princess of Friendship. We went from teacher and student to the best of friends. It changed again when the Princesses were no longer needed. Equestria, nay, Equus as a whole had grown and had to leave its mother’s nest.”

She took a deep breath. “When time took my family, my parents and Shining, I was thrown into a deep depression. You were there to help. When time struck again, taking the other Elements of Harmony one after another, I was devastated. You were there to help me through that time, and many others.” She looked to Cadance, the pink mare winking. “When I needed help, you were the first I went to. When you needed help, you came to me. When we had free time, we spent it with each other, whether the other had free time or, often enough, not.”

A single joyful tear slid down each of her cheeks as she finished, “Celestia, you’ve given me many happy years of life, and I am overjoyed at the prospect of spending even more time by your side.”

Twilight looked to Luna and nodded. Both turned back to Celestia, who hiccuped once.

“Twilight, that was beautiful,” Celestia cooed.

Twilight smiled, the expression lighting up her face like the sun Celestia brought every morning.

“Twilight, ever since I met you that fateful morning, I knew you were special. At first, I thought you were merely just an extraordinarily powerful, if introverted, unicorn, but then I really got to know you. Underneath that introverted exterior was the most intelligent, talented, adorable, and amazing mare, in a dozen other ways I could spend the next hour on, beneath and I love you for that.”

Celestia brought a hoofkerchief to her nose and blew. “When you saved my sister, I was infinitely grateful, of that there was no doubt. I had a tugging in my chest. When you sealed Discord away–” The Draconequus in question rolled his eyes, “–and after helping Cadance and Shining defeat Chrysalis, that feeling grew stronger. When you became a Princess and defeated Tirek, I knew the feeling in my chest. I had fallen for you.”

“When I raise the sun in the morning, from that day on, it was for you first and foremost, and for everyone else second. When you smile, you light up my life brighter than that ball of gas in the sky. When you laugh, not even the most skilled composers or musicians can come up with a more perfect sound. When you cry, I can think of doing nothing else but helping you.”

Celestia bowed, getting down onto her knees. “In short, Twilight, since I’ve known you, you’ve brightened up my life. It’s the least I can do to brighten yours.” After a moment, she returned to her hooves and looked to Luna.

Luna motioned to Cadance and Spike. “Wedding rings are made precious by our wearing them. Your rings say that even in your uniqueness you have chosen to be bound together. Let these rings also be a sign that love has substance as well as soul, a present as well as a past, and that, despite its occasional sorrows, love is a circle of happiness, wonder, and delight. May these rings remind you always of the vows you have taken here today.”

Cadence stepped forward first, floating a cushion with a horn-ring bearing Celestia’s cutie mark. As the ring floated next to Celestia, Twilight knelt and tilted her head forward.

“With this ring, let it be a reminder that I am always by your side, now and forevermore.” The ring slid down Twilight’s horn firmly setting into place near the base.

Cadance stepped back and Spike stepped up. In his claw was a matching cushion, with a ring bearing Twilight’s cutie mark. Unlike the extravagant and, if Celestia’s complaints were any indication, ill-fitted ring she’d been given before, it was simple and properly fitted.

Their positions reversed, Celestia knelt down and presented her horn for Twilight. A shiver ran down Celestia’s spine as Twilight removed the engagement ring, replacing it with the true wedding ring. The engagement ring floated over to Spike’s cushion to be collected later.

“With this ring, I wed thee. With it, I bestow upon thee all the treasures of my mind, my heart, and my life.”

Spike stepped back, smiling broadly.

Luna’s voice rose, “And now, by the power vested in me as Space-President of the entire Equusian Federation, I hereby pronounce you mare and wife. You may now kiss the bride!”

Twilight and Celestia leaned together, sharing a passionate kiss as Luna spoke, “Mares, Gentlecolts, and everyone else! Celestia and Twilight Lightbringer, newlyweds!”

A literal wave of sound slammed into the arena’s center as the crowd went wild. Everyone, be them changeling, even-tempered minotaur, even the arrogant griffins, were caught up in the excitement, the atmosphere rolling and boiling over like an unwatched pot of water.

A camera drone hovered down to them, camera rolling. As the kiss ended, both ponies noticed, and waved happily to it. After a few seconds, the drone pulled back, retreating to a more advantageous wide-shot.

After the crowd settled, all those that were invited moved onto the reception. The various friends and descendents of those whom could call the Elements of Harmony packed the pews.

In the centuries since becoming an alicorn, Twilight had learned to dance properly, and the two greatly enjoyed dancing together. Twilight and Celestia shared the reception’s first dance as a married couple, per tradition. After the first dance, Luna took Celestia’s hoof, pushing her back onto the dance floor as Cadance did the same with Twilight.

They cut the cake, shared their gifts and spent a merry time with their friends and family. As everyone danced, partied, feasted, and drank, the day quickly passed, and it was soon sunset. Only when Luna left to set the sun and raise the moon did the newlyweds retire, stepping into an old, pony-drawn chariot.

Bidding their farewells, Discord himself hitched himself to the chariot and took off. Once in the sky, Discord’s erratic flight path ‘helped’ both ponies slump into each other.

Celestia’s head rested on Twilight’s, a wing intertwined with her wife’s. After loosing a massive yawn, she spoke, “What a perfect day.”

Twilight’s reply was a simple, “Yep.”

“Think, all it took to help us get this far was that crazy Draconequus.“ Celestia chuckled. “Who would’ve thought it?”

“I’m sure you would’ve had just as spectacular a wedding day without me!” Discord’s voice shouted back from the front of the chariot.

Twilight, relishing in Celestia’s warmth, started to doze as her energy waned. “I can’t wait to find a bed.”

Celestia’s smile turned sultry as she kissed Twilight, next to the mare’s horn. “I can’t either.”

Unaware of Celestia’s look, Twilight sighed. “I’m so tired, I could sleep for a few days.”

“Are you sure that’s the first thing that comes to mind, love?” Celestia kissed her way across to her wife’s nose, sensually locking their muzzles for a moment.

“Absolutely.” She cuddled deeper into Celestia’s embrace, her eyes sliding shut.

Undeterred, Celestia pushed on, sliding her right wing across Twilight’s closed one, interlocking some of their feathers. “Are you sure that’s the first thing you want to do? Isn’t there something else that newlyweds do first on their wedding night?”

Twilight groaned, clearly approving of Celestia’s action. Opening her eyes, she shot a sincere look at her wife. “You’re right. A bath sounds lovely first.”

Celestia’s jaw dropped and after a moment Twilight’s mouth trembled. After a few seconds, she snorted before laughing. Pointing at her wife’s face, she yelled, “Got you! Of course we’ll do that. I just want a bath after.”

Sighing softly, Celestia resisted the urge to cuff her wife upside her pretty head. “Thank goodness. I know the anticipation all day has got me wound up.” She lidded her eyes, turning on the charm. “How about we get started in here, first?”

“What about Dis? He’s kind of flying us,” Twilight inquired her ears perking toward the carriage’s front.

Celestia’s lips met hers again, a hoof stroking up and down her foreleg. “What about him? It’s not like he hasn’t seen either of us before. We don’t exactly wear clothing all the time.”

“Nope! Not dignifying that with a response!” was shouted at them. A snap rocked the carriage, throwing Celestia and Twilight into a corner. With the snap another yell sounded, “Mayday, mayday! We’re going down! I repeat, we are going down!”

Their moment interrupted, instinct took over, each pony slamming out of a door into the sky. Once outside, they watched, only half in amusement, as Discord fell with the carriage. He clung to it like a cat to a tree until it hit the ground.

As Twilight and Celestia hovered, debating on seeing him, a sign saying “I’m okay!” floated up to them. Both ponies giggled at the sight, knowing Discord’s antics.

“We’ll just have to fly there, I guess.” Celestia looked about, getting her bearings. With a hoof, she pointed toward the rising moon. “It should be this way, and not too far.”

Nodding, Twilight followed.

“Mmmph. Tia, just like that.” Twilight moaned loudly, fading into a sigh.

“How about when I do…” Celestia’s voice practically purred with desire. “This?”

Twilight screamed in ecstasy, “Right there! Right-there!”

Their door smashed open, Discord tumbling through back first. The smashed door showered splinters over the newlyweds. Twilight looked out from under Celestia, annoyed that the best massage she’d ever had was interrupted.

Luna followed him, her eyes doing their best to melt his head. Snorting once, she bellowed, “DIS-CORD!”

“It wasn’t me! I swear!” He flailed on the splinters for a second before freezing. All three sets of eyes were on him.

“Dis? Luna?” Twilight’s annoyance faded as she noticed the two. “What are you doing here?”

Discord ‘eeped’ as Luna replied, “I caught this one listening in at your door.” She shut her eyes and smiled smugly. Discord curled in on himself and teleported away.

“And pray tell, dear sister, what were you doing here to catch him? You run the federation, after all.” Celestia’s look was nothing short of menacing, her eyes narrowed with a scowl firmly in place.

Luna raised a hoof and scoffed. “Please. I’m just a figurehead. The most I do is sit in my office and be bored on most days. Some days, I even get to sign a document or attend some kind of fancy party!”

Celestia’s voice held no joy as she spoke, “Welcome to my life while you were banished, Luna.” Shaking her head once, she asked, “And that gives you reason to snoop on our honeymoon because?”

“Actually, I’m here once a week. Their masseuses are exceptionally skilled. Why do you think I recommended this place as a honeymoon?”

At that the scowl vanished, replaced with an uneasy smile. “Oh, right.”

Twilight shifted slightly, sliding out from under Celestia. She asked, “Still. Why were you up on our floor?”

Luna’s reply was simply, “Because.”

Both Celestia and Twilight shot her a flat look. Luna smiled devilishly before adding in a deep voice, “I’m not apologizing.” An instant later she teleported away, leaving the room as pristine as it was before she’d entered.

Shaking their heads at Luna’s exit, they laughed for a moment. After calming down, Celestia stared down into Twilight’s eyes. The hunger in them surprised her, but not as much as when Twilight pounced on her.

A moan sounded through their room. “Oh Twilight!” Twilight kissed, nipped, and licked her way down Celestia’s long neck as the atmosphere in the room changed. Gone was the sense of release from the massage. This was an expression of love, in one of its most physical forms.

But that fun is for another story.

Competition

The news program playing on the wall-screen shifted topics, drawing Twilight’s attention. A blonde-maned pony in a suit shuffled several papers in his hooves. “This weekend, the 52nd Chromatic Cup racing championship will be held. Cup favorite-to-win Sky Prism took the pole position during saturday’s time trials.”

Twilight recalled the name. Sky Prism was around twenty generations descended from Rainbow Dash, if she remembered right. She looked over to Celestia, nestled into several cushions, some article or book floating next to her. “Hey, Tia? Want to go see the race?”

Celestia, who had been paying more attention to her book than Twilight or the wall-screen, looked up “Hm?”

Pointing a hoof at the screen, Twilight asked again, “Want to go see the race?”

Both ponies watched a trailer play, showing several ponies, gryphons, and other fliers speeding along a three-dimensional track.

Celestia hummed thoughtfully for a moment, long enough that the holographic text had disappeared from being ignored. “It has been a while since we’ve gone to one, let alone the championship race.” She smiled softly, the kind of smile that absolutely made Twilight’s day whenever she saw it. “Yes. Let’s go.”

“LADIES AND GENTLEPEOPLE! WELCOME TO THE FIFTY-SECOND CHROMATIC CUP CHAMPIONSHIP!”

The rest of the announcement was drowned out by the stunningly massive crowd cheering.

From their seats, Twilight snuggled against Celestia. Though the stands were packed, everyone had room enough to stretch if necessary. They looked down at the starting line, sixteen racers staggered in their starting positions as their teams checked them over one last time.

They eyed the lead racer, Sky Prism as she checked over her suit and thrusters. She was shorter than most of the others, but her wingspan is where it really counted when racing. Hers was the largest, but not by much. Wings spread, she was more than twice as wide as she was tall.

A massive gryphon tom next to her flapped his wings powerfully, lifting himself off the ground on the second stroke. As he set back down, he seemed to flash a cocky grin Prism’s way.

In response, she shooed her team out of her way, before unfolding her wings. Where her dull pink mane ended and pale-orange coat gave way to feathers, her coat seemed to shimmer and shine, each primary a different color of the rainbow. Her wings spread straight up, pausing a mere heartbeat before slamming downward, lifting the short mare higher than the gryphon had gone, with half the wingbeats.

She dropped back down, her grin could only be described as ‘shit-eating’ as she saw the gryphon visibly pale. Turning back to her team, she waved them over, and motioned to the thruster on her back and under a wing.

Twilight looked at the other teams, testing equipment, racers taking off and hovering to check weight and balance, among other things.

Her mind drifted to how much the sport had changed with time. Racers relied on their natural skill, sure, but technology helped push them further, pushing their limits farther than ever before. The suits let them take turns much sharper and faster without snapping joints or passing out. The advent of rocket and jet thrusters let them accelerate and hit much higher speeds. Improved training regimens improved racers’ stamina and strength manyfold.

“She’s more impressive than I thought.” Celestia’s voice brought her from her musing.

Twilight nodded into Celestia’s neck. “She is. She’s truly like Rainbow, the fastest pegasus alive.”

Several minutes passed by, the two mares enjoying their time together silently, each lost in their own thoughts.

Their ruminations were interrupted as the announcer came over the cloudspeaker. Twilight snickered at the term. ‘Cloudspeakers. Cloud loudspeakers. Somepony so caught Tartarus for that…’

“Racers, are you ready?” Down on the track, the teams had cleared off, leaving only the racers left. Several of them pawed at the cloud they stood on.

A single pegasus, in a black and white jersey stepped in front of the two leaders, a green flag in hoof.

He raised it high in the air, above his head, holding it for several seconds. Looking to the clock, he swung the flag down just as the minute ticked over.

Mere fractions of a second later, sixteen bodies launched skyward.

Prism took the lead, naturally. Airborne with her first downstroke, she rocketed through the first checkpoint less than five seconds after the race started, moving fast enough her contrail had started already. The contrail itself was almost identically Dash’s, except there were two of them: one from each of Prism’s wings.

She passed through the first ring, snapping her wings in tight. Freefalling, she picked up speed quickly pitching forward to fall nose first. She only opened her wings back up after she had passed through the second ring, her competitors mimicking her behavior, their wings folding and diving to pick up speed.

Gliding more than flying, she angled to level and climb. Her speed carried her through the third ring as she banked toward the fourth. The race turned into more of a blur for Twilight after that. Celestia was incredibly warm, comfortable, and snuggly, after all.

Only when the crowd gasped did Twilight’s mind seem to reboot. A pegasus clipped one of the metal rings with a wing, throwing him out of his racing line and he started to spiral. Before he got too out of control, the thrusters under his wings lit and fired powerfully, taking over forward momentum and letting their pilot use his wings to slow his spin and bank back into line a few seconds later. Once he stabilized, the jet thrusters fired harder, rocketing the stallion through the next ring twice as fast as he’d previously gone.

Cheers went up through the crowd as he made his recovery, losing only two places as a result.

That also seemed to trigger something through the rest of the racers. Their contrails disrupted as it seemed everyone fired up their own. Several racers turned into mere blurs as they fired away full bore, using their wings only to steer. Way in front, the gryphon that had started next to Sky Prism had caught up, his massive thrusters giving him major speed on the straighter sections of the course. Not content merely gliding under his jet power, he flapped his wings, his magic innately working to align the air currents to funnel right into the boosters. His speed more than doubled, and with a small crack, he broke the sound barrier.

Right before the turn, he blew by Sky Prism like she was standing still, but overshot the turn and had to lose most of his speed to turn properly.

Prism herself seemed only to use her boosters sparingly, relying more on her agility to rocket around her turns at full speed than to set airspeed records between checkpoints.

She banked hard, almost seeming to come straight at the stand Twilight currently sat in. From her point, she saw the smirk that graced Prism’s muzzle as she closed the distance to the next ring.

The gryphon, his turn finally completed, blasted toward her and the next ring, a crack signaling he’d broken the sound barrier again.

Just as he looked to pass her, she and Twilight locked eyes. Twilight could swear she saw a wink directed her way before a second crack signaled Prism passing the sound barrier herself.

The wave of force from the two sound waves washed over the stands, the sound and force vibrating the crowd to their bones. Several ponies and gryphons around her shivered uncomfortably.

As they passed overhead, Twilight turned her focus on the other racers, Prism and the gryphon diving down behind the stands she sat on, obscured by the stands themselves.

The rest of the racers battled among each other for positions, but it was clear that the two leading had nothing to fear from the others.

Twilight’s mind wandered again, letting the battling blurs serenely splitting the sky calm her down. ‘I think I’ll just rest my eyes a minute…’

“AND THE WINNER IS SKY PRISM!” The announcement shocked Twilight to awareness, bundled up in Celestia’s warmth. The white mare herself was asleep, leaning against her. The rest of the announcement was lost as she barely contained the squeal seeing Celestia sleeping so adorably.

The twin chromatic contrails blasted around the course one last time, taking a victory lap before landing in the winner’s circle. The gryphon she’d barely beaten across the finish line, mere hundredths of a second slower than herself, landed and shook her hoof.

Turning back to Celestia, she was out cold, snoring softly. Wanting to leave, she scooped the larger mare onto her back, draping Celestia’s forelegs around her barrel. Instinctively, Celestia tightened her grip, hugging Twilight firmly. Spreading her own wings, she took off gently headed back to their shuttle for home.

Author's Note

Well, long time no see! This guy has been sitting unwritten since... uh... July. Of last year. Shit. Well there go the feelings of accomplishment for the day.

Anyways, self deprecation aside, I knocked it out in a couple hours. Been bouncing ideas around the last few days, once I'd come across the blank document again, before I settled on this one tonight. I want to say I've been working on örewriting/extending the original prompts, but I think I've got half a page at most of additional content for them. Most of that in the last week or so.

This one's the only one not tied to a prompt posted in the Twilestia collab. It kind of is, but only because someone else took the prompt like ten or so weeks ago or something after I'd had it two without doing crap with it.

Comments are my lifeblood! If you liked it, hated it, felt no strong feelings one way or the other, or just like chocolate milk, or whatever else you thought while reading, let me know!

Sunrise

Twilight poked at a message she’d received. “Anomalous readings from these coordinates. Please investigate.”

‘Should we even go? This message came from an anonymous, throwaway account. It may very well be a trap.’ She pulled up the coordinates, noting that it was a three week-long trip for the Celestia if she couldn’t teleport. As it stood, it was several days slow-boating from the edge of known space. ‘It’s so far out into unmapped space. We’ll have to go slow when we hit the edge of currently mapped space…’ As the moments dragged on, she mentally weighed the pros and cons of even going after the coordinates.

She would later claim that she jumped only slightly when two hooves wrapped themselves around her from behind. Her fiance, Celestia, had stealthily wandered up and decided to help break Twilight out of her mental battle. Celestia nuzzled up against Twilight’s cheek, reading over Twilight’s shoulder. “What’s this?”

“I received this message a few hours ago, asking us to investigate some anomaly out in dark-space.” Twilight’s ears folded back, the tip closest to Celestia brushing against her own. “I’m not sure we should go. The account that sent it was a throwaway, and it’s almost a week round-trip slow-boating from the edge of known space. It’s gotta be some kind of trap.” She brought up her projections and showed the math to Celestia. It all checked out.

Celestia seemed to perk up. “Oh? I can certainly see why. But you’re forgetting one thing.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow toward her fiance. “And that would be…”

“The variable for boldly go. Your adventurous spirit.” She waved the math away. “Let’s go check it out. Sure, it could be a trap, but it could also be something that sparks a breakthrough or some other intelligent species. We could make some friends!”

Twilight sighed softly. “Statistically, the odds are astronomical to find aliens whom immediately become friends with us.”

Celestia swiftly crushed the intrusive thought that she should cuff Twilight upside her head for that. Instead, she switched tactics, hugging Twilight gently, “I’ll make a deal with you. Let’s ask the crew.” A hoof turned Twilight’s head so she looked into Twilight’s eyes. “If they vote to go check it out, then we go. If not, then we don’t. Simple as that.”

Twilight was silent a moment before she replied, “I… that’s fair. They’re getting involved in this too, so they should have input.” She quickly opened up her communicator and started typing furiously. “I’ll send them a message now. I’ll set a deadline for a week or so from now. Those that don’t vote won’t be counted.”

Scarcely a minute later, the message was sent.

The votes had been tallied, and it was almost a unanimous vote to go search for the anomaly. The Celestia’s crew had stocked their ship, packed extras, just in case, and set off.

“How close are we?” Celestia’s voice cut in, as she entered the bridge. As she sat down next to Twilight, she whispered, “You may have been right, Twilight. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Twilight nodded. Celestia’s gut feelings had saved them both multiple times back when they were princesses. Whenever it happened to ‘say’ something, Celestia usually listened to it. “Should we turn back? I wanted to check the metal planet.”

“That may be for the best. If you want to check it out, I think we should leave afterward.”

Considering Celestia’s gut instinct, Twilight ‘hmmm’ed as she looked out the front viewports from the bridge. “The message said it should be around here. Maybe they’re pointing to something on that planet.”

Helm piped up, “That’s not a planet.”

“Hm?” Twilight looked over to the pegasus questioningly. “Why do you say that?”

“It’s got a metallic sheen.” Two questioning gazes turned to the helmsmare.

“We’ve seen metal worlds before. They shine almost like second suns in some solar systems from the right angles,” Twilight refuted. She looked back to the planet, subconsciously attempting to calculate the angle necessary for the local star to have such a powerful secondary glare.

“No. Not like a metallic world where the uneven metallic terrain produces uneven light refraction.” She pulled up a zoomed-in view, where the terrain was completely flat, with no protrusions.

“Then what is it?” Twilight asked, squinting at the metal ball.

“A ship or space station of some kind. Not sure how it moves, or if it’s capable of doing so, but every so often, I can see some seams on the high-res scans.” The scans appeared and floated over to both alicorns’ sides.

Celestia’s questioning gaze softened to a small smirk. “I see. You think the flat terrain is what… armored plating for a starship the size of a planet?”

“I know it sounds kind of crazy, but the more I look, the more it seems right.” As she looked back to the ball, she blinked twice. “Was… was it always that big?”

Celestia’s gaze snapped to the planet. “What do you mean?”

Twilight’s voice was hard as iron. “It’s moving. She was right. It’s a ship.” She quickly made her way to the captain’s console and keyed up the systems. “It’s headed straight at us on an intercept course. We might be in serious trouble soon.”

She keyed the intercom. “All crew. We found the anomaly. A ship literally the size of a planet is going to attempt to intercept our path. Be prepared for anything.” Almost as an afterthought, she changed the alert level to general quarters. The lights in the bridge instantly shifted from a bright, neutral white to a soft orange.

“Helm. Full speed. Let’s see if we can outrun this thing if we have to fight.”

“Aye cap’n. Full steam ahead.” The ship seemed to hum as it picked up speed.

She turned to the comms officer. Try and open a channel with it. See if we have any common basis for a language.

“I’ll head down to the supercharger. I’ll get us ready for any combat teleports we might need.”

“No. Stay here for now, Celestia. You know more languages here than anyone else. Work with Comms if they are able to connect.”

“C-captain? The video screen is online and transmitting already, I never touched the panel!”

Before anyone could react, a voice interrupted their conversation. “There is no need to do any of that. I can perfectly understand your language, and you can understand mine.”

A face appeared on the video screen. An alicorn, whom looked surprisingly like Celestia. White fur, but instead of a slight pink tint, there was a tiny bit of orange mixed in, giving her fur an almost shimmering quality. The most pronounced changes were in her face and hair. Her hair flowed like Celestia’s, but appeared to be made of solar fire, a deep, fiery red surrounding several blues, purples, and whites. Twilight noticed that her mouth had two fangs poking down from the upper set of teeth. Her eyes were the most intriguing thing, though. Dark red sclera with glowing yellow irises, inset with almost lightning-bolt shaped brown pupils. These eyes didn’t look natural on anypony, and they were glaring directly at Celestia.

The mare smirked cockily. “Allow me to introduce myself.” She held a hoof to her chest, showing off an armored boot covering it. “I am Daybreaker. I’m here for one thing.” She licked her lips. “That great, big, white battery there.”

Celestia spoke first, habit slamming her mask down to cover her emotions. “Where is this battery you speak of? I see none here.”

A snort left Daybreaker’s mouth, before she laughed like Celestia had told the greatest joke she’d ever heard. It took several moments for her to calm down.

“I was talking about you, little Celestia.” Before anyone else could speak up, she stated her demands. “Turn the battery over to me, and I will spare your lives and ship. Failure to do so will have… dire consequences.”

Thoroughly confused, Celestia just had to ask. “Before we do anything… just who are you?”

“A fitting question, battery. I’m you. But hotter.” The screen pulled back slightly as Daybreaker showed off her cutie mark. What was undeniably Celestia’s sun surrounded by a layer of orange fur as if it exuded solar fire. “See? I did not lie. I am you. But I’m hotter.”

Twilight immediately suppressed the thought that her fiance could be like the alicorn on the screen. Unfortunately, her wings twitched, drawing Daybreaker’s gaze.

“And what do we have here. Another little alicorn? Hm. I may not be able to use you as a second battery, but you look positively… delicious enough to eat…” Daybreaker’s smile showed off her sharp teeth. “I think I might take you, too.”

Twilight physically recoiled in her chair at the hungry gaze Daybreaker levelled at her.

Fed up with this mare, Celestia stepped between the screen and Twilight. “I’m afraid you can’t have either of us. We will not bow to your demands.”

Daybreaker smirked. “You’re not in any position to refuse, battery. You will come with me, else I’ll destroy that tiny little ship of yours to get at you.”

Her horn lit and a white beam washed over the Celestia’s tail end after that. The shields held, barely. “That was a warning shot, little battery. I will not hold back on my next shot, and it looks like that little toy of yours won’t survive.”

Twilight had keyed up the supercharger’s banks and started feeding them to the shields facing Daybreaker’s ship. She noted that they’d have enough juice to take a few more hits at that power, but didn’t know how they’d hold against a full-strength hit.

Twilight whispered discreetly to Celestia, “We need to get out of here. I don’t know if the Celestia will survive until you can get to the teleporter. If you can stall her, I can get there and ‘port us away.”

Celestia nodded. “Daybreaker. How am I to know you will not go back on your word and destroy my friends?”

That was Twilight’s cue to get up and take a few mugs, shaking her head and acting like she was getting more coffee. As soon as the door closed, her horn lit and she created an illusion of herself and the mugs, set about to return in a minute or so, so not to reveal the plan too quickly.

Blinking slowly, Daybreaker replied, “You will have to trust me. I have not lied to you yet. Why would I start now, if it keeps you the most compliant?” Those unsettling eyes met Celestia’s again.

“If we surrender, how are we to get to your ship?”

“You will fly over, of course.” Daybreaker’s voice was condescending, almost as if talking to a child, “I trust you know a spell to wreathe an air bubble about your head?”

Celestia nodded once as the door opened. Twilight returned and set the mugs down. Almost immediately, Celestia leaned down and pretend to whisper in the illusory Twilight’s ear.

During that time, the real Twilight had made her way over to the supercharger and started charging the matrices. ‘Hopefully they can give me a minute or so… I don’t like having to make a blind jump back to known space, but we can’t afford to be stuck near Daybreaker right now.’

Twilight nodded. “Very well. We will surrender, but we will not leave until we have your word that this ship and crew will remain unharmed and unmolested.

Smiling devilishly with her teeth on full display, Daybreaker nodded. “You have it. As soon as you are aboard, your ship is free to leave.”

The illusion and Celestia shared a look and nodded. “Very well. We shall fly over.”

At that, almost the entire bridge erupted in chaos. Several voices shouted in unison, “No! You can’t go!”

Looking over the crew, Celestia spoke softly. “If it is to protect all of you, I will gladly give my life up.” A tear in her eye slid down her cheek. “Know that I treasure each and every one of you.”

Several of the crew were on the verge of shouting again, but a shake of Celestia’s head calmed them somewhat.

“Blah blah blah, we get it. You’re sad that you have to leave. Get a move on!”

Everyone in the room scowled at the mare. Only Helm kept doing her duty, keeping as much space between the Celestia and Daybreaker’s ship as she could. The shipwide intercom clicked twice before there was a blinding flash.

The Celestia flashed back into existence. Twilight’s illusion had faded during the teleport, but her voice came over the intercom. “Status report? I just teleported us away from her. I do not know if she can follow us if she can traverse multiple dimensions.”

Comms called out, “No pings, we don’t have anything in range to talk to.”

Engineering replied, “Shields down from the ‘port, but recharging smoothly. Should be up in less than thirty seconds.”

Helm called out, “I don’t know where we are, the stars are in odd positions. You better get up here, Captain.”

“Roger that, I’m on my way back.”

Celestia reached out to her sun, gathering her bearings. The link was distant, but tugged her.

She strode up to the helmsmare before pointing. “Helm, proceed in that direction. I feel my sun off that way.”

Helm nodded and directed the ship in that direction just as Twilight reentered the bridge.

A flash on the viewscreen blinded everyone who was looking. As they recovered, Helm was already trying to maneuver around the now much, much closer ship in their way.

“You dare?! I shall incinerate the lot of you for that!” Daybreaker had apparently followed them.

Author's Note

Lord it feels good to be back writing again. I also blame Fuzzyfurvert for inspiring me to write this. Chronologically, this takes place between Syzygy and Wedding.

Wrote this ditty over the weekend, and am so jazzed how it turned out. I've already started on the second part, of possibly three.

This is also rather unedited past cursory scanning, so if you find anything odd, do let me know!

Eclipse

The Celestia was dwarfed by the much larger ship, it’s sheer size creating a gravity well and drawing the smaller ship toward it.

Two beams raked across the Celestia’s shields, almost sliding off because of the shallow angle.

“Minimal shielding damage! We must be under its firing arcs!” Engineering called out.

Twilight regarded her fiance, worry on her face. “Celestia, we have to do something. She’ll follow us wherever we teleport.”

“It’s too big! The ship is drawing us down with its own gravity!” Helm cried out, hoping to gun the engines even more.

“Then we’ll fight her here and now. Helm, find a seam and take us down. We’ll deal with her directly.”

Looking over her shoulder, she spotted Celestia. “Ma’am?”

Celestia nodded. “Do it.”

“Aye aye.” Helm shifted in her harness, and the Celestia came about, almost seeming to glide toward the planet-sized ship.

Celestia watched as the larger ship’s hull loomed like a horizon. Various vents and ports seemed to open, discharging their payloads toward the smaller ship, but the lasers and projectiles only seemed to miss, glancing off the smaller ship’s shields at best.

Helm kept the battleship from colliding with the planetship as best she could, effectively flying their ship like a terrestrial fighter plane. “Found one!” She spotted what she was looking for, and started bringing the ship down where a truly massive cannon seemed to slide free from the planetship’s hull.

As they neared touchdown, Celestia keyed up the intercom. “All hooves, brace for crash landing!”

The Celestia came down as gently as Helm could make it, sliding in on two of the three wings. As the cannon turned to try and fire at them, Twilight called out to fire at it. Those cannons that could lashed out several times, two or three managing to find their way into the turret’s rotating ring, disabling it. Seconds later, the ship itself seemed to tremble and screech from metal sliding across metal, still firing maneuvering thrusters to keep as much weight off the ‘ground’ as she could.

Sliding what had to be miles, the battleship came to a rest, rocking slightly.

“Ship status, report.” Twilight was checking her console. As reports came in, Twilight looked relieved. “Minor bumps and scrapes, but the crew seems fine. The ship’s still spaceworthy, but there were some breaches. Excellent job, Helm.”

Helm beamed, hearing that. “Thank you, Captain. It wasn’t pretty, but she’s down. What’s the plan now?”

Twilight growled, standing on her chair, her hair bristling. “We take on this Daybreaker. She must be stopped.”

“We’re with you,” Torus said as he stood from his console.

“No. This is an alicorn fight.” Celestia’s voice was curt.

Silently, Twilight slipped from her chair and made her way to the door.

“But…”

“I meant what I said earlier.” Celestia looked to Twilight, ”We will fight her. Because we are the only ones who can.”

“Why?”

“This kind of power isn’t something an average pony, minotaur, or griffin can shrug off. She will literally boil you alive in your own skin.”

“How do–” Torus was cut off.

“Because it’s something I can do.” Celestia’s muzzle fell. “Quite easily, if I wanted.” Looking up again, she stared each of them in the eyes. “If she truly is an evil-me, what care would she give to sparing lives in combat? Only using what power was necessary to incapacitate?”

Several sets of ears fell and nearly everyone in the room looked away. “I don’t want to lose you. You are too dear to me to lose.”

“But… what about the Captain? Shouldn’t she stay?”

“As much as I dislike it, she has to come with me. I know I will need help to defeat her, and I only hope she is not hurt in the coming battle.”

“While we’re gone, if any ships show up on scanner, hail them and tell them to get and stay away. I won’t have anypony else involved.” Twilight met her wife’s eyes and nodded. “Come, love. Let’s take care of a little ego problem.”

Celestia and Twilight left, quickly making their way to an airlock. After stepping inside, Twilight cast an air bubble spell about their heads and shut the internal doorway. “So, what’s the plan, Tia?”

Celestia slammed down the manual release lever and the remaining air swept free from the airlock into space. “Simple. We stop her.”

“How?”

“That’s the tricky part. I’m not entirely sure.” Celestia hopped out of the ship, followed by Twilight. She looked back at the purple alicorn. “If she has many ‘batteries’ as she put it, she could siphon their power to use in the fight. I’m not entirely sure my magic can touch, let alone harm her.”

“How do you know that?”

“Darn. No access hatch. Guess we’ll have to make one.” Celestia’s horn lit. “As for your question, I have a hunch.”

A small beam of molten sunlight poured from Celestia’s horn, directly at her hooves, slowly melting a hole in the hull. “Have you met another of yourself from a different universe before?”

Very, very slowly, the metal reddened and warped, only the size of a pinhole. Celestia narrowed her eyes. “Just once. She said it was an accident, but we weren’t able to affect each other with our magic.”

“That’s… just weird.”

“You’re telling me. We even did that perfectly-mirror-each-other thing.” Celestia chuckled softly.

Several minutes later, the hole hadn’t grown to more than twice its original diameter and only half a meter thick. Celestia’s horn cut out. “Alright, screw this.” She telekinetically grabbed the multi-ton turret and pulled. The sound of tons of metal twisting and groaning turned to ripping and shearing away before the turret shot free, launching straight up.

Celestia let it go, but Twilight caught it and dropped it off to the side. She smirked childishly, “Littering is a crime, Tia. Don’t want to be ticketed.”

“All the way out here? Who’s gonna enforce it?” Celestia smirked back.

“You never know…” Twilight broke out into a truly infectious smile and both ponies giggled for a few seconds, until the destroyed turret slammed back into its own ship, coming to rest dented, broken, and sparking.

From where the turret rested, atmosphere vented for a few seconds before stopping and environmental shields slid into place. “Huh. Enviroshields. Guess she was expecting hull breaches at some point.”

“Or had some before.”

They made their way to the edge. They shared a knowing look before Twilight said, “Well, let’s go.” and jumped in.

Passing through the shield, Twilight felt warmth suffuse her entire body before she opened her wings. Seconds later, Celestia passed through it, following her example.

Inside, light was dim. Twilight squinted as she tried to make out the floor, only really managing to see it from the darkness of a long fall mere meters before hitting the ground.

As she landed, she lit her horn and the turret’s chamber revealed itself. It was a whole lot bigger than the turret itself, with several lines of ammunition lining the walls, seemingly fed from elsewhere. Currently, there were several massive shells scattered about, along with more of the turret’s superstructure that wasn’t torn loose with it when Celestia ripped it out. A small section of of the walls seemed to be radiating heat, glowing red.

“A lot bigger on the inside, huh?” Celestia asked as she alighted next to Twilight, folding her wings in.

“Yeah. Let’s… let’s see if we can find her.” Twilight nodded, and started making her way toward what appeared to be a shut door.

Celestia silently hoped there wasn’t anypony in the turret she ripped out. There’s no way they’d survive much longer if there was.

A voice cut through her thoughts. “There’s no need to worry. They’re robotic. Fully automated. No less deadly.”

A soft glorping sound reached their ears seconds later as she stepped through her new doorway. Smiling devilishly, she bowed. “Sorry I wasn’t there to greet you, but it is a rather large ship. I can’t be expected to be everywhere at once.”

Twilight yelled, “Daybreaker!”

“Yes?” Daybreaker made eye contact with Celestia and fluffed her wings. “Oh! I see you brought your battery! You’ve made this so easy for me, I should thank you!”

Celestia took a step toward her, ears pinned back and eyes shimmering. “How…” Celestia spoke just one word.

“How did I go from ‘Perfect, Pretty Princess Celestia’ to Daybreaker?” Daybreaker glared at Celestia. “Simple. I shed that goody-four-hooves weakness after I was forcibly removed from office during the space age. My Equus paid for its insolence…” She laughed, an evil cackle chilling both Celestia and Twilight’s spines. “Now I roam the multiverse looking for more batteries to power my ship until my power… my rule cannot be contested!”

“Wha–”

“Why? Are you stupid?” Twilight glared at Daybreaker. “You take Celestias from other universes just because you were angry? Now you want to control what… everything? Wow, talk about being petulant.” She put herself between Daybreaker and Celestia. “Besides, you can’t have this Celestia. She’s mine.”

Celestia was touched by Twilight’s speech, but she knew that Daybreaker would not appreciate the insults.

Instantly, Daybreaker snarled. “Insolent brat. I should incinerate you for that. You–”

“What about Luna?” Celestia’s voice was barely a whisper, but she might as well have struck Daybreaker physically with them.

“What about her?” She shouted. “She was weak, advocated my removal. She paid first, last, and foremost.” A manic gleam made its way to her eye. “I made her watch the world burn.”

Celestia froze, but Daybreaker locked eyes with Twilight. “You say that she is yours, then where is your mark on her? Where is your claim? Prove to me I shouldn’t take her!”

Almost painfully, the ring that Twilight had given Celestia was magically pulled off her horn and flew to Daybreaker. “Is this your claim on her?” She looked to Twilight. “Pitiful. If I can remove the claim so easily, then why bother trying?”

“Enough! This shall go on no longer!” Celestia’s mask shattered as she took the ring back. Before it could be returned to her horn, a ray of white-hot solar fire incinerated it.

Twilight’s heart fell as the ring burned to ash. The ray had not touched either of them, but they both distinctly felt the immense heat such a small ray produced.

“See? The little one shouldn’t have even bothered.” She turned around and beckoned to the melted hole. “Now, come. I shall have you both.”

Both Celestia and Twilight shared a look. Celestia responded, “I think not. You would have to kill us first.”

Almost lazily, Daybreaker shot back, “That can be arranged. I just need a battery, you don’t have to be alive for it to count.” A split second later she vanished.

A chill worked its way down Twilight’s horn as she heard a crunch. Turning back, she saw both Celestia and Daybreaker each slammed foreleg into the other’s cheek. Neither alicorn seemed fazed by the attack.

A second later, Daybreaker’s wings snapped open and she pulled back. Celestia pressed her advantage, not giving her evil alter-ego the chance to attack. Any time Daybreaker would slow down to start winding up an attack, Celestia was on her, hooves ready and swinging.

Twilight surveyed the fight with growing concern. Why wasn’t Celestia using magic against Daybreaker?

Celestia cried out as a quick buck nicked one of her ears, the sharp edge of the boot cutting a small slice of it. The other hoof missed her throat by inches, but it forced Celestia to back off.

Daybreaker hovered around, harrying Celestia in a flurry of kicks with all four of her legs. Twilight watched as Celestia was quickly herded toward the wall.

Launching herself into the air, she swooped in and tackled Daybreaker right as Celestia ran out of room.

Daybreaker rolled with the blow, snapping her wings shut. As soon as she had all four hooves on the ground, the wing in Twilight’s face opened and threw her into the air. A short, “Tia!” left her lips.

Celestia was airborne instantly and caught Twilight. The purple mare was dazed, but otherwise fine. “Twilight?” she asked softly

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” was her response. Silently, Celestia deposited her across the room and out of sight.

Twilight sat still for a few seconds as she regained her bearings. The fleshy sound of a strong hit preceded Celestia flying over her head. Her magic reached out and caught Celestia, slowly guiding her to the ground next to her.

“Where oh where are my two little morsels?” Daybreaker mocked them as she stalked toward their position.

Twilight let Celestia get her bearings before they both rushed Celestia’s evil alter-ego.

Even with two bodies working together, any hits they scored were superficial at best, but Daybreaker left her marks with every strike. Eventually she slapped Twilight with another wing strike, before bodily tossing her. Using her momentum, she spun into a wicked uppercut into Celestia’s lower jaw, throwing the white alicorn after her wife.

Both crashed to the ground next to each other halfway across the chamber.

Celestia slowly got to her hooves, and in a cliche move, spit some blood onto the floor before asking, “Have any ideas?”

Twilight’s horn lit. “Magic?”

“I… don’t like the idea, but she’s clearly far more physically capable than us combined.”

“You may not like it, but it’s time to cheat, Tia.”

“Good luck with that.” A hoof slammed into Twilight’s temple, and she crumpled.

“Twilight!”

“Relax. She’s alive. It wouldn’t do for me to kill my new concubine.” Daybreaker smirked. “Now, it’s just you and me.”

“You shall not have her!” The sheer volume of sound rocked Daybreaker back half a step.

“Yelling will get you nowhere, Princess. If you want to save her…” She slipped into a fighting stance. “Then you’ll have to get through me.”

Author's Note

Wow. I feel like an idiot. I had a part of this sitting here since the last time I updated. I completely forgot I hadn't finished this.

Also, there's one last part to go for this little arc, but it hasn't been finished. Hopefully, it won't take me six months.